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Julie Hembrock Daum

Spencer Stuart

Julie Hembrock Daum is tackling one of the most glaring gender inequities in corporate America: the lack of women board directors. Ms. Daum, head of the North American board-staffing practice at Spencer Stuart, has helped place 350 women on boards since 2000.

"I once had a company interested in recruiting a woman, but she had to speak German and like to go bird shooting," says Ms. Daum. "That kind of thing doesn't happen anymore."

Ms. Daum, 53, has worked at Spencer Stuart for 14 years, following a career as a consultant at McKinsey & Co. The notches on her gun include some of the world's largest corporations. She filled the entire board of the newly public Delta Air Lines last spring, and also staffs the boardrooms for American Express, Pfizer, General Mills and UnitedHealthcare, to name a few. Each year, Ms. Daum develops the Spencer Stuart Board Index, a publication detailing trends at national boardrooms, and is also responsible for the creation of the Directors' Forum, a "boot camp" for first-time board directors, at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

"We see ourselves as more than just recruiters," says Ms. Daum. "We see ourselves as advisers in the boardroom."